In a joint event, The Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF) and the World Bank (WB) in a collaboration with the Moroccan Financial Information Processing Unit held a regional workshop on “The Role of the Non-Banking Financial Institutions (Institutions Working in Securities and Insurance) in Combating Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing”, between the 3rd to the 5th of February 2014, in Casablanca, The Kingdom of Morocco.
This Workshop discussed the important role that the non-banking financial institutions play in combating money laundering and terrorism financing (ML/TF) activities, mainly those institutions working in securities and insurance. It discussed also the mechanisms in dealing with the risk of ML/TF activities in securities and insurance institutions through strengthening the supervisory system and enhancing the technical ability of both institutions and public supervisory authorities working in the area of securities and insurance, regarding the risk assessment requirements, know your customer principle (KYC) and the risk based approach (RBA).
The Workshop targeted various professional levels (compliance officers) of Insurance and Securities institutions, as well as supervisory professionals and employees of onsite/offsite inspection of non-banking financial institutions, specifically insurance and securities institutions. This workshop was a great opportunity for participants to share experiences, especially through the penal discussion session that included representatives from the securities and insurance institutions and the supervisory authorities on these institutions who discussed the risks and challenges of detecting and combating money laundering and terrorism financing activities in those sectors and the mechanisms that could be used to face these risks and challenges from the actual best practices of participated country members in the MENA region. Participants were divided into working groups to work on a number of exercises regarding technical compliance and risk assessment, which has added a concrete discussion and outcomes for the workshop.
Representatives from a number of MENAFATF member countries participated in this workshop: (United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Morocco, Yemen, Tunisia, Palestine, Lebanon, and Egypt).